Chapter 10 - The Pier
Grant moved forward.
Elaine tightened the knife against Lily’s skin.
“Another step and she bleeds.”
He stopped.
“How did you take her?”
Elaine smiled.
“Your police escort trusted the wrong lieutenant.”
Detective Ruiz’s voice sounded faintly through the wire concealed beneath my collar.
“Stay calm.”
“We are identifying the compromised officer.”
Renata looked at me.
“Give me the ledger.”
“Release Lily first.”
“You are in no position to negotiate.”
“You need me alive.”
“I need what is in your bag.”
“You also need to know whether we made copies.”
Renata’s eyes narrowed.
Grant understood immediately.
He stepped beside me.
“There are twelve encrypted copies.”
“That is a lie,” Elaine said.
“Perhaps.”
“But if we do not enter a code every six hours, every file goes to the press.”
Victor Cole had taught them to plan for power.
Grant had spent his life planning for corporate wars.
For once, his cold strategic mind was protecting his daughter instead of separating him from her.
Mercer pressed the gun harder against Adam’s neck.
“Enough talking.”
“Put the bag down.”
I lowered the handbag slowly.
Margaret looked toward me.
Her eyes moved toward the edge of the pier.
A small patrol boat drifted beneath the dock.
Ruiz’s team was moving into position.
Renata stepped forward.
“Kick it to me.”
I kicked the bag.
It slid across the wet concrete.
Renata bent to retrieve it.
At that exact moment, Margaret collapsed deliberately.
Renata lost her grip.
Margaret seized her ankle and pulled.
Renata fell.
Grant lunged toward Lily.
Elaine swung the knife.
Lily ducked.
The blade cut through her hair instead of her throat.
Grant struck Elaine’s arm and dragged Lily away.
Mercer fired.
The bullet hit Grant below the shoulder.
He fell backward.
“Daddy!”
Lily’s scream tore through the pier.
Tactical officers opened fire.
Mercer dragged Adam behind the SUV.
Renata crawled toward the handbag.
I reached it first.
She slammed her fist into my face.
I fell against the concrete.
She climbed over me, digging her nails into my wrist.
“You should have stayed invisible.”
I looked at her.
“That was your first mistake.”
I drove my knee into her stomach.
She rolled away.
Margaret grabbed the handbag and threw it into the river.
Renata screamed.
She ran toward the edge.
The bag disappeared beneath the black water.
“It’s gone,” Margaret said.
“The ledger is gone.”
Renata stared at the river.
Then she began laughing.
“You stupid old woman.”
“That was the only original.”
Margaret wiped rain from her face.
“No.”
“I switched it at the hospital.”
Renata’s laughter stopped.
The bag contained a blank notebook.
The original ledger was already in Detective Ruiz’s evidence vault.
Mercer fired again.
Officers returned fire.
The SUV’s windshield shattered.
Adam struck Mercer with both bound hands.
The gun fell.
A tactical officer tackled Mercer against the vehicle.
Elaine tried to escape along the dock.
Lily pointed toward her.
“She hurt Mommy.”
Elaine turned.
For one second, rage replaced fear.
“You should have forgotten.”
She rushed toward Lily.
I stepped between them.
Elaine struck me across the face.
I caught her wrist before she could strike again.
“You people always think kindness means weakness.”
I twisted her arm behind her.
Ruiz arrived and placed Elaine in handcuffs.
Grant lay on the concrete several yards away.
Blood spread across his white shirt.
Lily knelt beside him, sobbing.
“Daddy, don’t go.”
Grant touched her cheek with his uninjured hand.
“I am not going anywhere.”
“You promised Mommy that too.”
The words broke something inside him.
“I know.”
He struggled to breathe.
“But this time I am here.”
Paramedics rushed onto the pier.
They carried Grant into an ambulance.
Lily refused to release his hand.
I climbed inside with them.
As the doors began to close, Ruiz approached.
“We have Mercer and Elaine.”
“Renata?” I asked.
Ruiz looked toward the river.
Renata was gone.
During the shooting, she had climbed beneath the pier.
A small boat had been waiting.
Victor Cole had prepared an escape route.
Grant lost consciousness before we reached the hospital.
Doctors took him into surgery.
The bullet had damaged an artery.
Lily sat beside me in the waiting room with Grant’s blood on her dress.
At three in the morning, a surgeon entered.
“The procedure was successful.”
Lily sagged against me.
“He will need time to recover.”
“Can we see him?”
“Soon.”
The surgeon turned to leave.
Then he looked at me.
“There is something else.”
“Mr. Callahan’s preoperative bloodwork showed traces of a rare anticoagulant.”
I stared at him.
“What does that mean?”
“It means the bleeding was far worse than it should have been.”
“Was it from the bullet?”
“No.”
“It was already in his system.”
Someone had poisoned Grant before he arrived at the pier.
And only one person had served him coffee that evening.
May you like
Thomas Vale.
The board member who had helped us find the blue room.
